A Decieving Scent
by darkriku01
Summary: What if Edward had to leave again? But under different circumstances and for reasons he couldn't explain? What would Bella's reaction be this time around? Set after New Moon. Please R&R rated M for later chapters.
1. Chapter 1

Hey guys! This is darkriku01 and I'm usually a fan writer of games and this is my first crack at a book based fanfiction, which to me is the hardest to write. So please enjoy!!

"….." means talking

'…..' means someone's thoughts.

BPOV

"Bella," he said his velvet voice flat and smooth, "I'm leaving, I don't understand how it happened but I've found someone else." As he spoke I felt the old wounds rip themselves open with a vengeance as I began to hyperventilate.

"Edward," my voice was shaking so much that I could barely whisper, but I knew that he heard only to well. " You promised Edward, doesn't that mean anything to you? You promised me."

"I know, but I don't have a choice. The Volturri forbid marriages to humans and I can't bring myself to turn you or see you turned. And I don't understand this pull this other vampire has over me." He stared at me, his eyes not the smoldering topaz that I had grown accustomed to looking at, but a flat mat black that told me he meant every word that he said. I didn't understand how this could be happening again, but I didn't have long to think about it. I knew that soon the too familiar numbness would spread through my system and cut me off from the world and the impending pain.

"Is this what you want?"

"No, but I don't have a choice." He almost hid the pain that threatened to seep into his voice, almost. Then he turned towards the window and began to climb through it, but before he left he looked back at me and bide me one last farewell. "Bella, I'm sorry I've caused you all this pain, if I could make it so that we never met I would. But I have to leave now, and you won't see me again." And with that he slipped out into the soaked darkness. I stared out of the window that he had just left through and tried to process what happened when the floor suddenly rose up to meet my face. Then nothing.

The next few weeks were nothing but a blur of school, home and pain. The school was once again missing two certain people, one of which had been the very center of my existence. I no longer cared about calling or talking to Jacob, knowing that he would only be too happy that _he_ had left again. I tried to keep his face from straying into my thoughts whenever I had nothing else to think about but that was nearly impossible. He was always behind my eyelids smiling my favorite lopsided smile at me. The sight brought tears to my eyes and stole the breath from me. But soon the fury, so strong it was blinding, began to replace the pain.

Though his face still brought tears to my eyes I began to hate him as much as I loved him. But there was underlying layer of guilt that ate away at my heart knowing that he didn't have a choice. As the anger began to wake me up I realized that mourning like this was stupid and I began to feel as if the old Bella was dead, replaced by an untrusting blocked off Bella. I started to close people off and dress differently. I began to skip over my original clothes for something a bit more out there. And my new clothes shop became a very dark little unknown spot called Hot Topic.

"Bella! What happened to you?!" Mike nearly shouted when he got a look me after the Christmas holidays. I could see the concerned look on his face, wondering what had happened to bring about such a drastic change.

"What do you mean Mike? Nothing has happened to me." Inside I was laughing at Mike's crazy reaction to my new self.

"What do you mean nothings happened to you? Where did all these…gothic clothes come from?" He had struggled to find the right word and as he found it he hissed it out.

"I like my new look thank you very much Mike Newton." And with that I walked past him on to English. Everyone was staring at me like I was about to kill them, but that didn't bother me. I had started to sit alone at lunch, which suited me quite fine because I didn't want to have to pretend I was all right or that I was the same. After school I ran to my truck and it spluttered loudly to life as I started it. I couldn't understand why but I was eager to get home for some reason.

As I pulled up into the driveway I noticed nothing different about the house that held so many now depressing memories. Sighing I got out of the truck and trudged up to the house. I opened the door to a sight that nearly stopped my heart. Sitting on my couch in my living was Jane of the Volturri. Panic shot through system and my breathing kicked up a few notches.

" So good to see you again Bella." She smiled a sly smile, as she looked me up and down. I couldn't find my voice to answer her as shock and fear still had me within their steely grasp. She got up and walked over to me stopping just two feet in front of me.

"Aro will be very interested to find out that you are still human Bella." Her smile turned sadistic as she probably thought of what would happen to me when Aro found out. "What happened to your Edward? Why has he not changed you and left you here alone and unprotected?" At hearing this a fiery mix of pain and anger ripped through me and I was sure that I was visibly torn in half by it.

"He had to leave, he couldn't bear to change me and he…." I couldn't find the courage to speak the last part. As if speaking it would suddenly it real to me, make it sink in, and I didn't want that.

"Well, Bella what do you insist that I do with you, Aro would not be very happy if he found out that I didn't give you a choice and killed your right away. What do you want Bella?" Her smile wasn't one of sympathy; I could see the sadistic nature behind those brilliant red eyes. But what could I choose either way I was going to be dead to Charlie and Renee, but could I go on living forever, knowing that he had chosen another? I think could bear it as long as I knew that he was alive.

"Give me two days to get everything here…finished and then please take me Aro." I felt moisture welling up in my eyes at the thought of how I was going to say good-bye to Renee and Charlie. Jane's face then changed, her dislike of my decision was evident on her face. Perhaps she had been hoping to kill me.

"Very well," she spit these words at me like venom, " two days is all you will get. Be ready by then." And with the second that I took to blink she was gone and I was alone. The silence was like a deafening pressure crushing my body. I figured that I would make a very special dinner for Charlie tonight as a subtle good-bye gesture and then I would email my mother. Numbly I got to work on Charlie's dinner and as time does with things you are dreading it speed up and Charlie was home in no time.

"Hey there Bells! What smells so great in here?" I remembered how much Charlie had liked it when I cooked his grandmother's version of stroganoff before and decided to cook that. During dinner I tried to keep happy and normal, well as normal as I had been lately. "So how was your day at school?" he was trying to keep the banter light. Charlie was never any good at small talk.

"It was good, we started on sense and sensibility to day in English, and Gym was canceled today so they could wax the floors." He let out a snort at that comment knowing how deadly my hand-I coordination or lack there of, can be. "Was the police station very busy today?"

"Not really, but then again I guess that's a good thing." He got up with his plates and headed to the sink then he came back and grabbed mine, something he doesn't usually do. "Hey dad…." I hesitated not knowing what I wanted to say. What I should say.

"Yea, Bells what is it?" He looked up from the dishes that he didn't normally do, I wonder if he sensed that I was stressed about something and decided to help out.

"I just wanted to say that I'm glad that I moved here and spent this time with you and that I love you a lot." I watched his face for his reaction and he seemed confused.

"Ok Bella, I am too." I watched him falter in trying to find the right words. He never was one for expressing himself emotionally. But instead of listening to what he might say I smiled, got up and headed to my room to e-mail Renee. I just gave her a brief account of what I did that day and then told her that I loved her. I couldn't think of anything else to say that would give too much away.

The rest of my two days went by in a blur, and soon I was standing in with Jane in the place that I would "die" of an animal attack. We took some of my extra clothes and smeared some blood on them, not my blood of course, animal blood. But I knew that they didn't do DNA typing here so they wouldn't check to see whose blood it was. Then she turned to me,

"Well now that that is done we have a flight to catch." Then she turned away and headed for the car she had gotten for the "human" as she had said. All through the flight I was worrying about what was going to happen and how I was going to be received at Volterra. And in no time at all I as standing in that same white room with Gianna still at the desk. Then Jane ushered me into the round turret room to meet with my destiny. Aro was standing in the exact same spot he was the last time I had seen him, but unlike last time I was alone and there was a new agenda to fulfill. His face immediately lit up as I walked into the room, no doubt anticipating the gift I as going to bring upon my birth.

"Bella!" He glided towards me but stopped a short ways away from me avoiding direct contact as much as possible I assumed. "I am extremely pleased that you decided to join us here in Volterra, extremely pleased." It still amazed me that his pale, transparent like skin didn't wrinkle as he smiled or talked.

"It was either this or death, and I don't want to die anytime soon." I answered trying to keep my voice level. It was very disconcerting to be surrounded by 'non-vegetarian' vampires without _him_ being here. Aro came closer and I thought that he was going to do it right here, but he only pointed me to another door in the back of the turret room that I had not seen before, and escorted me through it.

"I figured that you would want some privacy during the transformation," he almost too kind and I thought that I saw a look of sympathy in his eyes, but I wasn't sure. I looked around the room and found that it was made of the same material as the turret room. In the middle of the room there was a bed, trying to make changees as comfortable as possible I laughed darkly to myself. In the far side of the room was a mirror, which to me was rather random. He then led me to the bed and instructed me to lie down. As soon I looked like I was comfortable on the bed he asked for my arm.

"My arm?"

"It is the least intimate place for a bite." He explained as if he were talking to a frightened child. So I extended my arm to him and winced as I felt him sink his teeth into the small amount of flesh. The next thing I felt was the most excruciating pain I had ever known. It felt like some was holding a torch to the inside of my veins and moving it slowly over the rest of my arm. I let out the scream that I had been holding seeing if I could release some of the pressure I felt on the inside of my body. I didn't know whether or not Aro was still there, and I didn't care I just wanted the pain to be over with. My vision began to go black but the pain didn't fade.

The fire had soon spread over my entire arm and started down my back and up my neck. I was beginning to feel little licks of flame on my chest and stomach. I didn't how much time had passed. Every second felt like an eternity, and my voice had grown horse from screaming long ago. The flame had reached my legs and my entire body was now engulfed in what felt like the fires of hell itself. But as suddenly as the fire had started I felt it start to fade from my toes upward.

When it finally stopped I was panting, and exhausted. I opened my eyes slowly with a small degree of difficulty and looked around. The room was empty, but I had a feeling that it wouldn't be for long. Tentatively I set up expecting the fire to come back, but it didn't. I looked at how disheveled the bed was, weird, I can't remember thrashing. I got up from the bed and set my feet on the floor, I finally realized that I felt different. I felt cold, and I could smell the stones that surrounded me. I could hear different voices that I was sure weren't close, but I heard them as if they were right in the room. I looked down at my feet and gasped, I was paler than I had ever been when I was alive. And the sunlight that was streaming in from the high windows were making my feet sparkle. I stood there admiring my feet before I remembered the mirror.

I walked over, amazed at how graceful I felt, and looked at myself. I could scarcely contain excitement. I was beautiful, my hair was still brunette, but it looked as though it had more shine to it, and my face was pale and smooth and perfectly proportioned. But my eyes had me confused, I thought that they would be as strikingly red as everyone else's, but they were the bright topaz. That was when it hit me. This overwhelming thirst, the need to have that warm salty sustenance sliding down my throat. The creak of the door opening had me whirling around at a speed that I didn't think possible for a klutz like me. Aro was standing in the doorway.

"Fascinating" I looked at him as he said this but I didn't see his lips move.

"What's so fascinating?" He stared at me caught by surprise, I bet that didn't happen every century.

"I guess I'm not surprised that you can read minds" he mused to himself as though he hadn't heard me. His musings made me gasp 'I can her people thoughts!'. This thought rippled across my brain for a few minutes as the gravity of this revelation sank in. It was funny but it made me feel intrusive and I quickly tried to think of ways to turn it off or drown the voice out. Then I heard him think a name that was new to me.

"Who is Edward?" I asked, the name felt soft on my tongue, like I had known him before, but I could not pull an image to put with the name. Aro looked at me strangely and asked me one simple question.

"Bella, have you ever heard of forks?" It was a rather strange question to me but I had not heard of Forks and when I told him this he came to one conclusion, that I had lost my memory of my previous life. He told me nothing else of Forks or this Edward, and I didn't inquire because something in the back of my mind warned me against it.

"Bella," Aro had a gleam in his eyes, they had gone black with hunger, " its time to feed my dear." He took me outside of the room where a group full of tourists were waiting, but strangely I didn't feel the initial pull to the humans blood that every other vampire felt, but when I saw that one of the tourists had a dog with them, my stomach tightened and my throat burned with thirst.

It was right about then that the other vampires had set themselves upon the unfortunate tourists and in the commotion I went for the dog, completely ignoring the humans. Pulling back the fur from the animal's neck I bit in and moaned at the taste of the thick liquid that passed my lips. Only when I had drunk my fill did I realized that it was quiet once more, but that everyone was looking at me. Aro came forward a puzzled look graced his features. "Why did you not take of the humans blood?"

"Their blood did not call to me." I said innocently, or as innocently as one could with blood dribbling from their mouth. I looked up at him from my position on the floor where I had fed from the dog. The others just looked away disgusted.

50 yrs later.

I opened my eyes from the passing of my very first memory after I was born. I was lounging around the turret room in my very own wooden chair. I looked around at the others who were gathered in the room. Glancing right over the thoughts of Felix the blond vampire he was flirting with I went right to Aro, Marcus, and Caius. They had been acting rather strangely lately and I wanted to know what was going on. Aro's thoughts were the same, usually about this Edward Cullen and his sister Alice and when they would join the Volturri.

This Edward could apparently read minds like I could, but he a limited distance. And this Alice could predict the future, both very interesting powers that peeked my interest. But I had heard his thought many times in the 50 years since I've been here, so they were exceedingly boring to me.

I moved on to Marcus who was focused on some small problem they had with a vampire that was loose in the town and hell bent on exposing us. Nothing-new there, but Caius surprised me. He learned to keep his thoughts quite guarded from me, but this time I could actually hear him. He was thinking about the second largest coven next the Volturri, the Cullen's. Specifically he was thinking of Carlisle, and Forks, something that Aro had forbidden everyone from doing. I made myself very clear I told I didn't want to know my past. My eyes narrowed at Caius' back.

'What has you thinking about that dreary rain drenched town?' I projected my voice into his mind trying to startle him it worked. Unfortunately this was my only form of entertainment, aside from moving things around with my mind when no one was looking and confusing them. His eyes snapped over to me immediately as he jumped. Bella: one, Caius: zero.

'Nothing for you to worry about you little monster.' Caius didn't really like me. When I was a newborn I accidentally threw him across the room. I was still not used to my strength and I don't think that he ever really forgave me for that.

'Aro wouldn't be please if he found out about this.' I tried to sift through his brain to see what was driving his thoughts, but he began doing that one thing that would get me out of anyone's mind faster than lighting. He started to hum a certain song. I can't place the songs name or where it came from, I just know that every time I hear it I'm overwhelmed with anger and sadness.

I just glared at him from across the room, though I knew I shouldn't be mad at him. I had invaded his very personal space. I looked around the room again and thought again of how monotonous things had become around here. I had been toying with the idea of leaving and going to America for a rather long time. And for some reason it just felt like the right time to tell Aro.

"And if you'll please join over hear you'll see the ancient turret room of the Volterra castle built in the early 1500s." The practiced voice of the receptionist came drifted through the air, telling us that it was feeding time. I hoped that some had something alittle bigger than a cat this time. I was the only here who couldn't drink human blood it actually made me sick. So I was stuck with animal blood. Aro explained to me long ago that that was why my eyes were topaz and not red. I got up and moved towards the door.

"Greetings from Volterra!!" Aro called in his singsong voice inviting the group of tourist in. I was happy to see that at least 2 people had dogs. Much better than cats dogs are. As the other began to feed I tried to ignore the screams and pleading thoughts while I quickly finished off the dogs. But when I was done I had no choice but to look at the carnage around me, bloody bodies lying around the room. Their faces frozen in the panicked looks that told of their last terrible moment of life. This was another reason I wanted to leave. I had had to look at this kind of carnage for 50 years and I was sick of it. I saw Aro wiping fresh blood from his mouth, I picked my way quickly through the bodies and was at his side in seconds.

"Aro I would like to talk to you if you have a moment."

"Certainly Bella, lets go up to the streets, I hear it is a beautiful night." We quickly made our way up to the streets of the ancient town of Volterra. No matter how many times I came up the stars never ceased to amaze me. I turned to look at Aro.

"Aro," I began choosing my words carefully, "I think that it is time for me part from Volterra and go to America." I could hear the thoughts that flew around Aro's mind, some panicked, some angry, some curious, some happy.

"What is it that you are looking for in America that Volterra cannot offer you Bella?" He probably already knew what I was going to say, but decided to make sure anyway.

"A change, answers, a lot of different things that I can't explain." Surprising Aro did react the way I had imagined. I know I had told Aro that I didn't want to know anything about my previous life, but fifty years of bloody monotony can change a girls mind.

"Then go if you need to, we let Carlisle go so many centuries ago, you are no different." I said nothing, just nodded and turned around to leave. I didn't go back to the turret room; instead I headed for the exit of the city and a car. The kind didn't matter as long as it didn't go to fast. I don't know why but unlike the other I had an odd aversion to fast driving. I could never explain it. I eventually found a coal black Jetta and quickly hotwired the alarm and the car. Soon I was heading out of Volterra into I world I didn't remember.

Well, that was the first chapter! Please tell my what you think by reviewing! I'm a slow writer and I'm prone to writer's block rather frequently so it might be a while before the next chapter, but I promise that it won't be too long!


	2. Chapter 2

Author Note this is getting reposted because when i was uploading the document something happened and half of the chapter got cut off. Sorry for the problem. I would've just posted the rest of the chapter as a continuation of chapter 2, but there were some details that got fixed in the part that was already posted. please enjoy the _real_ chapter 2 of _A Deceiving Scent._

Disclaimer " I own not twilight nor any characters associated with twilight."

When I arrived in New York it was about two o'clock in the morning. I stepped out of the departing gate into the bustling New York airport and as I navigated my way around people to the exit, I realized that I would have to get somewhere relatively deserted or with very little light. And I knew exactly where I was going to go. A small town named Forks. I wanted to learn a little something about myself, anything that I could. I had gotten over that voice that told me to shy away from anything that was connected to my past. As I neared that exit I swiped a map of the United States, as I did not know my way around.

I left the airport and after a few hours of walking at human pace the landscape began to change from crowded buildings to open grassy fields and clean air. Without a second thought I began to run and the wind blowing through my long hair was one of the best sensations I had ever had. I loved the sounds of the night that were flying all around me, the crickets, the owls. And the occasional call of a wolf would trigger something that danced along the shadows of my memory and faded before I could grasp it firmly in my mind.

When daybreak came I had reached a small town called Waucoma, Wisconsin. The day was rather cloudy so I decided to walk around the forest that was located not five miles form the town. I quickly drank my fill of a few deer I found there and preferred them greatly to small house pets.

I thought it might be time to move on when I ran across a hiker who almost saw me. After about three days of non-stop running I was finally able to slow when I reached a giant welcome to Forks sign. Suddenly a pang of pain ran down my back, and a name and a face came to my mind. Charlie. I didn't know what the connection to this name was yet but the shot down my back told me to investigate, yet something warned me not to let him see me. Something told me that would be bad.

As entered the small town I saw no one, guessing that everyone was at work I walked around. As I walked I realized that the entire place was covered in the scent of other vampires, very faint after so long but still there. The scent seemed familiar to me, but I couldn't place it. I soon came upon the high school of this town, and from a distance I watched the children that were walking from the parking lot into the building.

I laughed as I heard their mental groans at having to go school. Smelling the air I found that that the other vampires scents were all over this place as well. After a few days of exploring the surrounding woods, I came across a house hidden a ways away from the small town and as it came into view, the vampires smell got stronger. But the house looked abandoned and this elusive Edwards face flashed in my minds eye for just a moment. It seemed as if this town raised more questions than it answered. I went and sat down on the house's front porch to look at the map when it happened. A memory hit me, like I was watching it and not living it.

_It was night and I was standing on the porch staring at the door, a look of pure dread adorned my then human face. And then I turned to see Edward rushing up the stairs after me to pull me into an embrace that was passion laced with stress and fear. He murmured words of comfort into my ear and then turned me back towards that door. The door opened and I was bombarded with flashing lights and music so loud that the bass was rumbling the floor. _

And just like that the memory ended. I was still sitting on the porch stairs in the weak sunlight. So I had been romantically involved with this Edward, but if that was true where was he now? After that memory I thought that I would remember more, but nothing came so I pulled the map I got in New York out of my back pocket. Having no more leads I figured that I might as well find a town to live in.

The only town that actually struck my fancy was a town called Havre right by the Canadian border in Montana. Before I set out for Havre I went back to Forks to see if I could get anything and was disappointed. So I set out northeast for Havre. I traveled alone for a quiet awhile until one night when I happened upon another like myself. Then sun had barely set and I was in another thick forest when I saw him. He was crouching over a dear, mouth latched firmly to the animal's throat. And from what I could see it look as though he was older than most when he was turned.

Slowly I approached him from the front. "Hello" I greeted him cautiously reading his mind to get a handle on his personality and thought process. His head snapped up from the dear and he stared at me apprehensively. Slowly he stood up from his crouch and dropped the dear. As he eyed me I heard his racing thoughts and when his eyes finally met mine I realized that they weren't the normal blazing red, but the unusual soft topaz.

"And who are you exactly?" Cautious, at least that meant that he was smart. From the sound of his thoughts he didn't seem much older than me. His body was stiff as if expecting an attack, but his manor was humanly pleasant.

"My name is Bella and I am new to this land." I decided to keep my place of origin a secret. Letting people know that you're from Volterra didn't exactly win friends and influence people.

"My name is Gael. Are you alone in your travels?" He relaxed minutely and turned his body more to where he was facing me full on. Good, that was a sign that he slightly trusted me.

"It is true I have no other companion."

"Its not exactly wise for vampires like us to wonder around alone. The red eyes aren't exactly as civilized as your or I am." He eyed me to gage my reaction. He wanted to travel with me just as much as I wanted to travel with him. It would be more of an arrangement of convenience, but it wouldn't be as unstable as the alliances the red eyes made with each other.

"Where are you heading Gael? I'm heading northeast towards Havre, I've heard that it's not very sunny." I started to walk towards Gael and was pleased when he didn't back away or tense up.

"I have no where in particular I am going, just meandering from state to state." He leaned against one of the many trees that encased us in the forest, finally the perfect picture of calm.

"Well, you can travel with me if you would like, honestly it would make fitting into the town easier. If you wouldn't mind playing my father?" I could see that this was a very pleasing arrangement for him.

"That would work for me." He pushed off from the tree and motioned for me to lead to way with a wave of his hand.

"Then lets get moving." He just smiled at me as I walked past him in a north-word direction. It was odd that I didn't feel ill at ease with him like I thought that I would. And as we talked on the way up there, we found many things we liked in common and things that we shared. By the time we got to Havre it wasn't too hard to pretend that we were father and daughter. We were already friends close enough friends that people wouldn't question us. It didn't take too long to purchase a house out in the country past Havre. And soon Gael was able to find work as a local artist doing works on commission from the good art starved townspeople.

Soon after I was enrolled in the local high school as a junior transfer student. Transfer from where? I have no idea because Gael forged the papers and I didn't complain because they had obviously worked. Everything went well at the school because everyone avoided me on natural instinct. So I was the only student that sat alone at lunch, but that didn't bother me. Why would it? It was way too entertaining to listen to the trivial thoughts of the children around me.

But eventually one person did approach me on the very last day of the first semester, her name was Eve. The odd thing was that her presence didn't annoy as the other student's had. It was comical, to say the least, in the way she had approached me. I was sitting at my lone lunch table writing something that had popped into my head when she approached me. She was wringing her hands in a nervousness that amused me, but her eyes held a spark of confidence in them that was anything but nervousness. After some hesitation she sat down in front of me and introduced herself.

"My name is Eve and I was wondering why you never talked to anyone." She looked at me with a quizzical look on her face. Her thoughts, though, were racing with disbelief that she had just said that. I answered her with a chuckle.

"Well, Eve, I've never been approached nor seen anyone that I particularly wish to approach." I had hoped to repel her with this answer but unfortunately she wasn't deterred.

"That just makes it seem like you think very little of those around you." She said with a huff. I laughed in my head wishing that I could tell her what I really thought. But I unfortunately had an overdeveloped sense of politeness.

"I can't think very little of people I don't personally know. I'm just not a very social person."

"I can help you change that if you would like me to! Cause you really don't know what you're missing by not hanging out with some of the people around here." She beamed at me with a smile that held no trace of falseness in it. But the idea of mingling with the other students just didn't particularly appeal to me.

"Thank you very much for the offer Eve, but I think I shall decline. I am perfectly content with my books." She looked as if she was bout to protest, but I hardened my stare and that broke the last of her resolve. She got up and left the table without another word, but turned to glance at me before she sat down at her table. I heard all the thoughts her friends had of me when she told them what had transpired. The day ended with only one more surprise. When I was leaving past the main office of the building I heard the principle thinking about the papers he had to file for the 6 new additions to the student body that they were going to have next semester. I didn't think much about it on the way home. I just hoped that these children's thoughts would be much more interesting than what I had already heard.

For the Christmas break I decided to go and travel the country again looking for anything of my former life. My searches lead to Phoenix, but once again I didn't find anything. The sun was a major contributor to that fact. It kept me inside most of the time. And when I had returned to Havre I noticed that something didn't smell right. I found Gael in his studio the minute I got home. "Gael," he turned from his painting when he heard his name. "Have you noticed the smell around the town?" I stood in the door way and waited.

"Yes, I have and I have something to tell you that you probably have already figured out." He turned and set his paintbrush down and then turned back to me. "There is another group of vampires that have taken up residence in little Havre." He watched me waiting for my reaction.

"Have you met them? Do you know anything about them?" He walked over to me and led me to the prop kitchen, the usual setting of discussions or declarations and frequently argumentative debates.

"I have not met them, and I do not know their clan name" as he spoke I nailed him with a glare, " but I did not feel this was necessary because they are the same as us."

"How do you know this?" I snarled at him, I couldn't believe how careless he was being. It made me want to wring his neck and throw him through the large window he was standing in front of.

"The number of the people in town hasn't changed, there haven't been any suspicious deaths. And they've been here long enough that they would've needed to feed by now." He looked rather pleased at himself at having deducted the facts to this conclusion.

"How do you know that they aren't just feeding in another town? One with a bigger population that wouldn't have noticed a missing person or two?" The smile on his face faltered as though he hadn't thought of that. But there was nothing I could do about it now. I would only interfere with them if they began to harm the humans of this town. I left Gael standing in the kitchen staring after me and went to go and pick out my clothes for the first day of the new semester. I stood there in the middle of my room, but I couldn't keep my mind off of these new vampires. I walked to the window and debated on whether or not I should go and listen to the thoughts of the townspeople to see if they knew anything of the new comers. But if they were as careful as we had been when we moved here then the people in the town wouldn't know anything was different about them.

Abandoning the first idea I went back to my closet and tried to pick something. It took my awhile thanks to my wandering thoughts, but when I finally had that task handled I had nothing else to do. So I settled down with one of my favorite books and waited for the next morning to come.

As I drove to school I couldn't keep my mind still so I turned up my radio in an attempt silence my thoughts. It almost worked because by the time I got to school I was so lost in the melodies and the words that I had almost forgotten the new students until I saw two new cars in the parking lot. There was a shiny old model Volvo and an old model red M3 convertible. I guessed that they were inside getting schedules or already in their homerooms because the cars were empty. As I walked up to the front building I realized that this was the same smell that covered Forks. Then a thought hit me. This couldn't be them, could it? I pushed through the front doors and looked around, but there was no one new around so I made my way to my homeroom.

I didn't see them until lunch. I had just sat down at my own little table facing to doors when they all walked in together. The first one I saw, Emmett I think, was huge and brawny. Definitely wanted to stay away from him. The girl who followed him, Rosalie, was one of the prettiest girls I'd ever seen, she had amazing gold-blonde hair all the way down her slim back. I figured that they were together by the way she caught up with him and held to his arm. The next two came in together, but it was the girl I noticed first. She had short black pixie spikes all over her head and I knew that this was the Alice that I was continuously seeing in Aro's mind. But I was at a loss for the next person, though I think I heard that his name was Jasper.

It was when the next two people came in that my breath started to come in short pants and my long cold body began to heat up. The boy that came in was not as brawny as the first one, and not as tall as the second boy. He was kind of wiry, but not at all short. His hair was a beautiful bronze and looked like it had just been styled for a hair commercial. That was when it hit me that this was the Edward that had so thoroughly captured Aro's thoughts. It was hard but I finally tore my face away from the godlike creature to girl hanging on his arm. I don't know why, but the moment I laid eyes on her face I felt this urge to kill and vision went red momentarily. Startled by that feeling, I looked back to Edward and it felt like I had butterflies in my stomach. 'Great' I thought, 'my body knows more about him than I do.' Suddenly his nostrils and eyes flared and he looked around frantically, his eyes landing right on me. Completely forgetting his companion, he stalked over to where I was, and the closer he got the more I could hear his mind and the anxiety was building. Finally he came to stand right in front of me and said one breathy word.

"Bella?" His eyes seared into mine as he whispered, and before I could answer my brain went into overload and shut itself down. The last thing I saw was the floor under my seat.

When I came too, the principal was standing over me wringing his hands. It took me a second to realize that I was laying on the couch in the principals office.

"What happened?" I muttered acting sleepy like a human would've after fainting. I sat up and felt no pain anywhere.

"I don't know Ms. Swan, but I do hope that you are all right?" It looked like he actually held some concern in his eyes. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that I had one of the best averages of the junior class. Not valedictorian or anything, but still pretty high for around here.

"I think so, what time is it? How long have I been out?" He turned around and looked at the clock.

"Just short of thirty minutes Ms. Swan. We were beginning to wonder if we would have to call an ambulance." When I heard that I was glad I had woken up when I had. The doctors would've died from shock if they found a woman who seemed alive, but had no heart beat.

"Who carried me here?"

"One of our new students, Edward Cullen. He tried to stay and miss his next class just to make sure you were okay. But between his girlfriend and myself we assured him that you were fine and that there was no reason to worry." I remembered it then. The sight of him coming through to cafeteria doors, him turning to look at me. Walking over and then the soft question filled with disbelief, 'Bella?'.

"Are you sure that you are able to continue with your classes today? Should I call your father to come and get you?"

"No, no Mr. Turner, I'm fine. You don't have to call my father." With that feeble attempt to assure him I was fine, I left the room and navigated the office out into the hall.

I knew that he was near me as I walked down the hall. I could hear his racing thoughts and sense his emotions. 'What has happened to Bella.' Frantic curiousity. 'Who turned her?!' Unbelievable anger. 'Where has she been all this time?' Uncensored longing. Things to that effect where circulating through his head for the next half hour. It took the rest of the day, but I finally made up my mind to contact him after school. Making the decision was the hard part, but once that was done I could do what was decided without any pain, or trouble.

It seemed as though the clock would not move at a regular speed once my mind was made up though. It was as if someone had deliberately slowed time down. But when that final bell rang I knew what I was going to say to this mysterious vampire. I hurried out in to the parking lot and saw him walking with his siblings.

'Edward.' I projected my voice into his mind, and he looked up and around as though he had been bitten by a dog he couldn't see. When his eyes caught mine though he seemed to understand where the call had come from. He excused himself from his siblings and girlfriend and turned, walking towards me at a very human pace. I chuckled as he was straining to maintain this pace and not run to me. When he finally reached me, he had managed to still his thoughts. But I could still hear one word echoing around his mind. 'How?'

"Bella," he sighed my name before I could say anything. "Who turned you?" Well, this one didn't bother with small talk did he? I just stared hard at him trying to will my memory back, hoping the sight of his face would trigger one. It didn't.

"You must be the Edward that I have heard so much about from Aro." He looked at me dumbfounded. I don't know what shocked him the most, that Aro had turned me, or that I didn't seem to remember him. I could see the pain in his eyes when his brain finally processed what I'd told him. I tried to understand the pain, but it didn't make sense to me that it mattered that much to him. He had obviously left me for another woman so why was he feeling such sorrow now? Was it regret maybe? I don't know why but I felt the need to respect this man who was a stranger to me and not plunder around his mind, but at the same time I had that same yearning to know what had transpired between us. So for now I would just let him talk and I would stay out of his brain.

He just continued to gape at me and I had a feeling that, like most vampires, he wasn't accustomed to being speechless. But soon a dark rage played out on his face so fierce that I fought the urge to step back from him. He thought Aro had taken my memories away from me. Edward took a minute to compose himself and lock his darker thoughts away. He pinned me with an intense stare that almost bored itself into my mind. Almost.

"Dammit," he muttered. It seems that he had tried to pick my brain and couldn't. But that was nothing new to me; I had some kind mental firewall. It protected me from powers that affected the mind.

"Done yet?" I met his answering glare with an amused smile.

"You don't remember me do you? You don't remember us?" I chuckled as he mentally cursed himself for saying that last part. Don't give me that look, just because I want to stay out of his head doesn't mean I won't get the stray thought every now and then.

"I only have one thing that I've remember since I've returned to America."

"Returned?" But before I could answer his girlfriend walked up behind him.

"Edward!, we have to go now!." She looked as though she was about to jump me right here in plan sight of the humans. And I didn't even do anything to her, imagine that. When he hesitated leaving she started tapping her foot impatiently.

"You should go Edward, we wouldn't want to upset the little Mrs. now would we?" By now his face was a composed calm that didn't reveal even a sliver of emotion. It was almost like he had died inside. But he eventually turned and went with the girl I learned was named Cecilia and I turned and left in the opposite direction from them. I had some major decoding to do on my emotions. So it wasn't until around well after midnight that I had gotten home to find Gael sitting in the study reading one of his favorite books.

"You were right." He turned to look at me with a quizzical look on his face. It wasn't often that I admitted when I was wrong and he was right. But then again, it didn't happen very often.

"About what?"

"About the new residents we have. They are as virtually harmless as us towards humans." I watched him rise out of the chair in a clean liquid movement.

"So I take it that you met them?" He came to stand about four feet in front of me.

"Yes, they were posing as high school students the same as I." As I spoke, Edwards face came to mind and my body started to tingle. It was odd because it had never done that before when I thought of him, so I chalked it up to the one memory I had and being close to him. I was starting to worry when I caught myself wanting to see him again. So maybe my body would remember everything before my mind would. After the long chat discussing the Cullens with Gael, I retired to my room for the remainder of the sun's sleep. For a while I just sat there trying to understand everything that was going on with my body and why I was reacting to this guy the way I was. Still entranced in my reverie, I felt the need for some fresh air. I opened the French doors to the patio only to find that all of my furniture had been destroyed. "Someone's trailing on thin ice." I murmured darkly as I went out to survey the damage. And as I walked back inside, a small brightly colored piece of paper taped to my door caught my attention.

"You better watch yourself you little bitch."

It was rather obvious who had written the note, but I really wasn't concerned. I really didn't care much about what had been destroyed; in fact, I rarely used it at all. It was the sense of invasion that had me murmuring darkly to myself. But I would be wary of Edwards little Cecilia, this one was irrational and possibly psychopathic to boot. Apparently god thought that my little world wasn't messed up enough so he had to send me my own little psychopath to play with.

Well, that's all for chapter two! I hope you enjoyed it and I'm terribly sorry for the wait, school been hectic lately. But I will try and come up with chapter three as soon as possible!! Thanks for the reviews, I really appreciate them!! Until next time.


	3. Chapter 3

I ALWAYS START OFF NEW CHAPTERS WITH THE LAST SENTENCE OF THE PREVIOUS CHAPTER, IF YOU THINK SOMETHING IS OUT OF ORDER WHEN YOU START READING THIS PLEASE GO BACK AND READ WHAT WAS ADDED TO CHAPTER 2. the first time i was uploading the chapter half of it got cut off, so instead of just making the rest of it chapter 3 i went back in and added it. sorry for the confusion and thank you for putting up with my lamebrainedness...sweat drop

hey guys! thank you sooo much for those of you who reviewed! you all get an edward or jacob plushie!(gives edward or jacob plushie) and for those of you who read, but didn't review? you guys get big thanks! but sorry no edward or jacob plushie for you...but seriously guys thank you!

XxXxXxXxX

I had not a clue how I was going to deal with this psycho that god had felt the need to send me. But one thing I did know was that I couldn't let her stand in the way of my past. A fervor in me was growing, some primal need driving my eternally restless mind. The destroyed patio furniture bothered me only in the odd sense of invasion I felt and in the fact that I would have to spend some of my savings to replace them. What can I say? I'm a frugal vampire. And as I stood there staring at the ruins wondering what style I should get to replace them, the dry aching thirst in my throat escalated out of nowhere and griped me in a dizzying spell. Apparently I was still young enough in vampire years for that to happen when I hyper focus. Leaving the ruins to themselves I ran into the quieting comfort of the woods for sustenance, and for once the only thing on my mind other than blood was Edward.

At school the next day the minds of the children were still buzzing about the "gorgeous" newcomers. All the boys were fixated on either Rosalie or Cecilia and for the girls, Jasper and Edward. It was all rather dull, but it was better than what was usually thought about. Encased in my mind and the minds of others, the very familiar and arousing smell that was drifting out of my homeroom, stronger among the others, did not register. Only when I looked up as I walked through the door did the hamster wheels in my head stop turning.

There sitting next to the only available seat left was Edward Cullen. With the way my body was starting to tingle I was sure that had my heart still been beating it would have exploded from the sudden jump into overdrive. I chuckled as Edward stiffened when the heater had blown my scent around the room and over to him. I had also thought over my body's reaction to the unforgettable Cullen and concluded that it was just my body's physical memory. If only my mind would catch up. Heaving a very human sigh I walked as slowly as I could to my seat. Edward was calm on the outside but I could see that he was mentally tapping his fingernails in impatience. The strength of the emotion in his eyes that he wasn't able to hide still made my unnecessary breath catch in my throat. With the same slowness I slide into my seat and avoided his gaze. The more I was around this man the more I acted like what I must've been like in my past. I had never been this nervous or evasive. The huge sigh to my right told me that he still couldn't read my thoughts.

Even though I wasn't looking at him I could still feel his gaze boring into the side of my face. As much as I surprisingly didn't want to, I turned my head slightly and looked him. His gaze was so intent, so focused that it made me forget what I was thinking. Whatever love I had for this man I had forgotten, but was it truly possible that my body was remembering him when my mind wasn't? I waited for him to say something for what felt like an eternity, so when he didn't I decided to project my "voice" into his mind.

_ How long do you plan on staring at me_?

The slightest twitch of his eye muscle that no mortal would've caught told me that I had surprised him. He stared at me for a bit longer until finally found the words he wanted.

"Until you become nothing but a mirage come to torture me in an already 'living' hell." He controlled his voice better than he had yesterday, but I could still feel the confusion and the pain at seeing me after all these years. Some part of me that was locked away after my transformation hoped that the pain would ease or that there was some way I could help to ease it.

"I'm sorry to tell you this but I am no mirage. And my point of existence isn't to torture you. I just want to know about my past." This small statement reminded him that I remembered nothing of how I guessed we used to be.

"You really don't remember us? Don't remember me do you?" His eyes held a strange longing that I could not understand. I did understand that yes we used to love each other. That much I had gathered. But I didn't understand the longing because if we had loved each other so much, then why had I been turned by Aro and not him? Why was he here with this wretched Cecilia woman instead of me? The pain that was seeping into the tenor of my thoughts scared me for a small moment. I just nodded my head to answer his question, not trusting my physical ability to speak at the moment. He sighed again, his topaz eyes searing into mine.

"I guess that's for the best." Then he laughed dryly, humorlessly, at some memory he possessed that I did not. But his actions contradicted his words completely. And as he hung his head, a seemingly un-'Edwardesque' thing to do, something compelled me to touch him. I would like to think that it was maybe touching him would bring a memory, but my thoughts were on something completely different when my hand found his. But this touching did spark a memory, a rather powerful one. And once again it was as though I was watching it and not living it.

_ I stood in the center of the meadow watching as Edward hesitated in the shadow of the trees some twenty feet away. And when he finally took a step into the light and the sun hit his pale flesh, my breath was torn from my lungs in a somewhat violent gasp. It was as though thousands upon thousands of small diamonds were embedded in his skin and they were sparkling something brilliant. He had stretched out by me on the ground, singing to himself. And after a while of my open ogling, he looked at me, his playful smile gracing his lips. "I don't scare you?"_

And that was where it ended for me. I just looked at Edward, thinking about the meadow and how much my human self had loved it. I don't know how long I had been in a trance, but it couldn't have been long because his head was still studying the floor intently. "Do you remember the meadow?" It was amusing to watch how his head snapped up at that question.

"I thought that you didn't remember anything." His eyes held an accusing, yet sadly hopeful light in them.

"I still don't, at least not enough. But when I touched your hand just now, I got a memory." I watched him carefully to see if I could read any reaction that might cross his face. I know that it's easier just to look in his mind, but something made me feel bad for intruding on his very, yet seldom personal space.

"Which memory of the meadow?" Edwards' voice and face were anxious now, and he didn't even try to hide it.

"It was when you first showed me your skin in the light, but I don't know if remember the whole thing. It was really short." I watched as a serene, almost wistful smile crossed his face. Apparently that was a memory he had liked.

"Is that all you remember?" Some of his anxiousness was gone as he reigned in his emotions.

"The only other memory I have is of the big white house. I was standing on the porch and you...well...ran up from behind, spun me around and kissed me. Then you whispered something into my ear and we went into what looked like a rave." I imagined that the human Bella would've been blushing when she had to tell this out loud. Before Edward could respond the bell to go to first block finally rang. I got up and without a backwards glance at Edward, headed out the door to my first class. After a gruelingly long first block of AP calculus I passed little Cecilia in the hall. She pretended not to notice me, but her thoughts were like that of a small child with ADD. Almost as though she was trying to hide something, imagine that. But there was something that I had been to distracted to notice before. That she didn't have the normal smell a vampire would usually. That sickly sweet smell entwined with the scent they had when they were alive, but it didn't really concern me right then so I dismissed it. Even though there was something screaming and pushing at the back of my head to gain freedom.

Lunch was utterly and depressingly uneventful. There was no silly human drama unfolding, nothing exceedingly dire happening. I had come to learn, over the years, though I didn't like to interact with other people, that I did like watching people reactions to things that happened in their life or environment. Sometimes I would mess with them and project my "voice" into their heads, calling their name. Some would just laugh it off nervously, others would answer, and some would just ignore it as though it were a very normal thing for them. All in all lunch was usually quiet interesting, but not today. Every student's attention was thoroughly captured by the Cullens as had happened when I had transferred in.

So I sat at my lone lunch table mulling in my thoughts, when I heard someone say a name that struck a chord somewhere in me. Jacob Black. A smiling Indian face was suddenly looking at me from behind my eyelids, but I could tell that he was more than just a friend from my old life. Though I didn't know exactly what he was beyond that. I continued listening to conversation, finally eager about something.

"...Mean, it's a complete disaster up there right now." A boy, Vincent Holston I think, was talking to the same girl who had tried to befriend me just the other day.

"What happened?" Eve asked, her voice laced with concern and worry.

"The entire tribe was massacred in some freak accident of nature. A lone wolf killed everyone in the tribe, including my uncle, Billy." Vincent choked at the mention of his uncle. "My cousin Jacob Black and his friend Quil Ateara are the only ones who survived, and they are coming to live with me." Hearing the word wolf and Jacob in the same sentence twisted something in my mind, but not much good came of it. Just unbearable pain.

As much as I wanted to I didn't wait for the girl's reaction. So fate had collected all the major players of my former life? Luck of the draw I suppose. My eyes glanced over to Edward to see if he had been listening to the conversation. The thoughts that I couldn't block out told me he had. But none of them gave away any emotion he might've been feeling at the moment.

The rest of the day flew by in a blur, and soon I was walking to my car in the parking lot, surrounded once again by my thoughts of Edward and now the new addition of this Jacob, when Eve ran up to me. Damn that girl was persistent.

"I know why you were so rude to me the other day," she stated, thoroughly convinced of her conclusions.

"Oh, do you now?" I tried to sound as utterly bored and uncaring as I could. Unfortunately, subtlety did not work with this kid.

"Yep. It's because you're shy. And that's why you won't hang out with anyone else." I allowed myself an ungraceful snort at the wild accusation. "And I am going to ask you to go with me to a movie, and you can't say no. Because being shy in high school does not sound fun." I figured that she would keep going like this until I had to kill her. What could one movie hurt? A small voice answered the unvoiced question, "everything" it sneered at me. I just hoped the voice wasn't right and that I wouldn't regret what I was about to do.

"Okay Eve. If I agree to go to a movie with you and prove that I am not some shy, anti-social freak, will that have filled your good community deed for the week and entitle me to never seeing you again?"

"Yep!" God this girl wasn't daunted by anything! I had hoped that being more rude to her would've pushed over the edge of her niceness and made her forget about helping me. It backfired. I sighed and pinched the bridge of my nose between for forefinger and thumb, another old human habit or physical memory surfacing.

"When?" I exhaled the question at her sharply. She was still unperturbed.

"This Saturday. Meet me at the Waucoma Ten Theater around four so we can pick which movie we want to see!" She actually sounded excited. I quickly ran through a mental checklist of things that I would have to do to get ready to not kill her this Saturday. I had to fabricate an even more convincing background because she was probably going to ask me about my past. Luckily human blood didn't call to me so I didn't have to go hunting, and the thirst won't get bad until about two weeks from now. So I pretty much had everything in order.

Cecilia must have learned about Edwards and mine little conversation in homeroom, because the next morning I learned that she had nagged him into transferring out. I guessed that part of it was Cecilia and the other part was wanting me to not remember. I wondered if he was trying to protect me from remembering the pain our separation held some fifty years ago. But what he didn't know was that I could already at least hear the pain, in the dead flatness of his voice and his thoughts. The only time I saw Edward now was at lunch, but he careful not to glance at me. And as the week went on, I realized that this small gesture hurt me. By the time Saturday rolled around I was almost depressed, something I had never felt before. I didn't even try to be rude to Eve.

"What movie do you want to see Bella?" Eve bounced lithely on the balls of her feet with unconcealed joy. Giving her a small smile I wondered if I had ever been like that. Was this tolerance and acceptance more of my human nature coming back or had Edward cast some voodoo on me?

"Hmmm. What previews do you think look good?" She pursed her lips for a moment in thought.

"Forbidden Kingdom looks pretty good. Have you seen that trailer?" I had seen the trailer and it was as ridiculous, as it was visually arresting. But that was Asian films for you.

"Yes, I've seen the trailer. Let's see that one." With a smile she sauntered off to buy our tickets with the money I insisted she take. And without waiting to get food, we settled into the back of one of the larger viewing rooms they had. I listened to Eve's meaningless chatter providing adequate responses for her to continue her rambling until the movie started. I hadn't actually been to the movies since I woke up in Volterra fifty years ago and was surprised to find that I sort of enjoyed this brief suspension of disbelief. By the end of the movie I was slightly higher in spirits than before it started. I even decided to be polite and wait with Eve until her boyfriend got here.

"So, did you like the movie?" She asked, her expression genial.

"Believe it or not I did. I haven't been to the movies in a long time." I didn't like to admit it, but I had actually enjoyed the night I spent with Eve. It felt almost as though I had known her before I moved here, or someone like her. But a face or name wouldn't come to mind this time no matter how I much I mentally prompted myself.

"That's good. Oh! There's Rob, later!" When she was gone, I found my car and just drove around.

I didn't really feel like going home and doing nothing. So I just drove and as I drove I thought. I thought about Edward, and the enigma he created in my life. I thought about this Jacob kid and what connection he might have with me, or how strong it might've been. I pondered over my night with Eve and wondered just what the hell was happening to me. When I finally did reach my house it was almost dawn.

"Gael I'm-" The smell as I entered the house caught me off guard. One of the Cullens was here and I could hear she and Gael in the kitchen. Rounding the corner into the kitchen I saw that the Cullen was Alice. She looked up at me, her expression bursting with happiness.

"Bella!!" she threw herself around the kitchen table and into me. I'm sure if she could she would've been crying. But her tear ducts had been long dead. "Where have you been?!" she couldn't conceal the raging curiosity planting itself on her face.

"Well, I've been in Italy for the past fifty years." I don't know why but I felt at ease telling little Alice these things. But I remember that Gael still didn't know these things about me.

_ Alice. Answer me with thoughts._

Her eyes widened as I projected my voice into her head. I felt a smile sliding onto my face at having surprised Alice.

_ Gael doesn't know about my past, and I don't want him to just yet. Could we maybe talk about his outside?_

She nodded at me and then turned to Gael. "I think that Bella and I are going to take a walk." And with that she grabbed my hand and turned us around so that we faced the open kitchen French doors.

We walked towards the line of trees in silence, but once we hit the trees we began to run and it felt amazing. I loved the feeling of freedom that washed over me and of the wind in my hair. Once we were maybe about twenty miles away, we slowed down. Alice waited for me to say something; she leaned against a tree giving me time and space.

"Well, the only thing I can tell you is that I woke up in Volterra as a vampire fifty years ago, and I don't remember much of anything before that." I watched as her face fell, and had the impulse to comfort her.

"So Edward wasn't lying about you not being able to remember us." She stated more to herself than anything.

"I'm sorry." I felt my eyes shift to the ground.

"_You're_ sorry? Why? It isn't you fault you can't remember anything!" It's Edwards!! I heard her mentally shout. She took a minute to compose herself, and then when I looked back up at her she was concentrating very hard on my face, my essence it seemed. I stared her for a few moments before saying anything.

"Alice? What's wrong?" She just continued to stare at me in a hard trance. I looked around nervously and when I looked back she had relaxed. "What was that Alice?" She looked at me with a sad, understanding expression.

"Just recently my powers have developed into a wider genre of seeing. Now if I concentrate really hard on a person that I am attuned to, I can see bits and pieces of their past. But I was able to get the last fifty years of your past no problem." I now realized what her sad expression had been about earlier. She had seen the weekly carnage that was the past fifty years for me, what had driven me, aside for my past, to leave.

"Well now you know the whole story." I sat down and leaned back against the giant tree that sheltered us from the harshest of the suns rays. Alice followed suit, and after some thoughtful silence she continued in our earlier conversation.

"You've been remember certain things, your past told me that." Her voice sounded relieved. Then a thought crossed my mind that almost elated me.

"Alice", I was hardly able to keep the hope out of my voice. "Did I know you when I was human?" She didn't seem surprised or hurt that I hadn't remembered her yet.

"Yes, you knew me. And I'd say we were pretty close." My ease with her made more sense now, and my hope had turned in a full-fledged choir singing their hallelujahs to god at full voice.

"Would you tell me about my past? Who I was? Who my human friends were? How old I was when I was 'born'?" I don't know if she noticed that stayed away from the subject of Edward. I wanted to remember him on my own. She looked torn for a minute and I could hear the war going on in her head. She wanted to tell me everything so I could remember and things could maybe go back slightly to the way they were. But at the same time she knew that someone who suffered from amnesia had to remember these things on his or her own. I realized that she had a great deal of insight into this situation. "Alice? How are you so unsurprised and understanding of this situation with my short circuiting mind?"

"Because I can't remember my past either Bella." The sad smile had returned as she explained. "I was eventually able to find out who I was and about my human family, but that was only because some information had fallen into your lap during one of our… 'Save Bella' excursions." She grinned sheepishly at the title she had come up with for the excursions. " But before that I hadn't been able to remember anything. Nothing, not even little scenes like you've been getting. And I figured I never would, but Bella if you are starting to remember some things then I don't want to impede your minds recovery process. Because that's what this is Bella. This is your minds way of protecting itself from painful memories. I want you to remember on your own. But I can tell you minor things, like habits you used to have." The first question popped out of my mouth with my thinking.

"Was nervous avoidance a habit of mine, especially around Edward?" Alice's laugh echoed around the forest.

"Yes, that was definitely one of your human qualities." The next question I thought carefully about.

"Alice. When do vampires usually loose their human emotional habits?" She pursed her lips in thought.

"I don't think that vampires ever really _loose_ their human emotional habits, why do you ask?" I chewed my lip as I thought about how to explain.

"Well, the more I'm around Edward, the more I act in ways I've never acted. I've never felt this way around another person or acted this way. I was trying to figure out if my body was remembering him and leaving my mind out of the loop. That perhaps these were human emotions and reactions of mine that I just can't consciously remember." I could hear the desperate annoyance seeping into my voice. When I looked at Alice for an input, I realized that she had closed her eyes in thought.

"That definitely is possible." She said slowly, eyes still closed. " Your body could be remembering him with out you mind, because you spent two years of your life with him. It seems almost like a strange form of muscle memory. But I don't think that it's completely unheard of." What she said made sense. I looked up when I noticed that the sun was brighter than before.

"I hope Gael had the sense to call me in at school sick or something." I watched as Alice looked up and nodded.

"I had Carlisle call me in today. I was going to skip anyway. Since were already not going to school, would you like to find someplace to shop?" Her eyes had gone bright with hope and her thoughts said that she had not had an adequate shopping partner in quite some years.

"Sure." As much as I abhorred the idea of shopping, the thought of spending more time with Alice was just too appealing. "Edward isn't going to be made with you for spending time with is he? Or telling me thing, I get the feeling that he does, but then doesn't want me to remember anything." I didn't remember enough to know if Edward was violent or not, but still didn't want Alice in trouble with him. But Alice just looked at me, that sad smile had returned.

"He might be a little mad, but he isn't going to do anything to me. And he doesn't want you to remember because he doesn't want you in pain. But the idea of you remembering does seem to make a small undisciplined part of him slightly happy. And he hasn't been happy in along time Bella." We stood there for a small while staring at each other, but then she had grabbed my hand was pulling me through the forest at a speed that would've been dizzying to a human. Soon we were speeding towards Helena, Montana in a canary yellow Italian sports car. I still wasn't comfortable with speed, which brought another question to my mind.

"Alice? Did I like driving fast when I was human?" Even at the Autobahn speeds she was going, she could still look at me while driving.

"No, you hated it whenever Edward or I did this." She laughed again, remembering something funny and I wished that I could laugh with her. "Do you still not like it?"

"Not really, no." She laughed again and then turned up the CD that was already blaringly loud. I stared out of the tinted window and tried to loose myself in the complex melodies and harmonies and forget about the speed. It didn't really work, but it gave me time to think over some of the things that Alice had told me. All too soon though we were pulling up outside of a mall in Helena and surprisingly it was only about eleven o'clock. That little speed demon had just made a four-hour drive in about two hours!

"I don't usually shop in malls, but since we don't have time to fly to New York or somewhere equally as fashionable, this will have to do." She was standing in front of the car waiting for me to get out. Bracing myself for a day of shopping with Alice, I got out of the car and went to meet her. It wasn't as bad as I had imagined it would be. We went to some of the more upscale shops, but we also went and played around in stores like Clare's and Icing. And about half way through out shopping excursion, we passed a store called Hot Topic. Its dark atmosphere and blaring music called to me and I laughed at myself thinking how clichéd this was. Especially after reading about a thousand vampire fan fictions. But I still went in to just look at the clothes and other baubles they sold. I did end up buying something though; just a plain black and white striped tank top. After that we spent some time in other various stores. But about six that night Alice mentioned that we might want to go ahead and head back to Havre as not to worry Gael and Carlisle.

Alice dropped me off at my house and helped me carry in my purchases before leaving to deal with Edward. I found Gael in his studio.

"Did you call me in sick today?" I really hoped he had because I didn't want to explain my absence to the principal tomorrow.

"Yes, I told them you have Malaria." I stared at him for a moment probing his mind to see if was serious or not. The scary thing was I couldn't really tell. "Kidding, Bella. I told them you had a cold and had gone to see Dr. Cullen at the clinic." He let out a laugh and turned back to his painting.

I was relived when I found that Edward hadn't killed Alice for yesterday's little ditching session. And I wasn't alone at the lunch table for once. Alice had come to sit with me; obviously ignoring Edwards glare burning a hole in her back.

"What happened after you went home?" I was anxious to see how Edward had reacted.

"I was right about the not wanting to remember the pain part, because he specifically yelled that at me. 'I don't want her to remember what happened because I don't want her to suffer!'" Alice had imitated Edwards voice perfectly. As I stared at the table I let that process. So he still cared about me, which means there must be some reason he left me in the past. Something done against his will. With this burst of revelation I felt uncharacteristic rage. So someone had broken us apart on purpose?! For selfish gains?!

"Bella? Are you alright?" Alice's voice was laced with concern. But I knew that I couldn't tell her what I had just realized. Not now at least. I would have to wait until the time was right, and do some more investigating into my past and this Cecilia character.

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until next chapter!


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